I haven’t talked about my Star Citizen fleet in a while because, frankly, nothing has changed, and also because I don’t think anyone cares. But with the release of the Constellation Mk V Centaurus and the looming shadow of IAE next month, I’ve decided to shake things up a bit.

Present Day

I’m not going to break down the fleet ship-by-ship this time since most everything is the same. Yesterday, though, I melted the Ironclad Assault. I had been using this to carry the Golem (starter mining ship) and the Salvation (starter salvaging ship) in the cargo bay so I could simply fly out and either mine or salvage whatever I found. I had chosen the Assault not because of the “assault” part, but because of the two Ironclad models, it was the only one which allowed for the rearm, repair, and refueling of smaller ships at the back of the cargo area. In practice, however, this is currently a nightmare. After every patch I have to summon the smaller ships and float them to a corner of the hangar. Then I need to summon the Ironclad, open the roof, and land the two smaller craft inside. I also might include additional ore pods for the Golem. I also also need to stock fuel for the ships. As of patch 4.10.2, this takes a good amount of time and when I’m done with all of the logistic work, I often no longer feel like using the ship in the current session.

With Ironclad Assault money in the credit wallet, I did pick up a Connie V. I like the Connie series just fine; it was one of the first ships I owned back when they were first introduced and if it hadn’t been far more janky back in those days than it is now, I might have stuck with it. I was having a conversation with @CakedCrusader, though, and the Connie is really more his jam. I am intro cargo and industry, so me having the Mk V is more of a placeholder than anything. It’s cargo compares to the Hermes (another RSI ship), but what really rolled me over to the decision was the inclusion of the Skylark, the snub ship that docks at the rear of the Centaurus. For this price I was getting two ships! Plus, I really like the interior design of the Mk V, even though it handles like a cinderblock tied to a school bus being towed by an 18-wheeler.

RSI Galaxy

With IAE on the horizon and the rumored/confirmed release of the RSI Galaxy, I’m having a deep think about my role in Star Citizen.

The Galaxy is a modular ship. It currently has three modules scheduled for release with the ship: cargo bay, medical bay, and refinery. This suits me specifically because I have been known to do the occasional cargo run for easy cash (the bay is said to accommodate 512 SCU, but that might change), am interested in medical gameplay to an extent, and as I consider myself primarily an “industrial player”, having a personal refinery on hand so I don’t have to share time with the plebs at stations is a big win.

Because the Galaxy is modular and because CIG likes money, it’s been confirmed that there will be a manufacturing module in the future, as well as a module that allows for large base-building construction. Being able to place buildings is a big goal of mine and of my friends, and while smaller construction ships and vehicles are well within the grasp of all of us, having something like the Galaxy to build larger structures is certainly a win for all of us.

RIF

In thinking about the Galaxy and how it would fit into my current fleet, certain redundancies emerge.

The Galaxy’s rumored 512 SCU of cargo space outclasses the RSI Hermes 288 SCU. I love the Hermes; it’s my daily driver because I always seem to need to be moving at least one box somewhere for some reason. It’s not too large and not too small and I love the design. I might fight to keep this in my lineup as it is my most used ship currently.

The sister ship, the RSI Apollo Triage, might not make the cut. This one is also modular, but only in terms of the tiers of medical bays it can take. My primary use for this is to install Tier 2 and Tier 1 modules (the second and first-best class of medical treatment) for when we expect to die while on foot, since the Tier 2 and Tier 1 beds have the longest respawn distance. It’s been a while since I’ve deployed this, however, and since the Galaxy can handle medical duties with all three tiers of bed all at once, I’m thinking the Apollo is going to get melted.

The Guardian MX is a nice, heavy fighter, but I really, really love my Hornet Mk II Ghost even though it’s just a small stealth fighter. Just as I’m an industrial player, @CakedCrusader is the ship combat guy. More often than not when we plan on tackling space combat we jump into one of his multicrew ships turrets, and that suits me just fine. While it would be nice to have a heavy fighter on hand, I think I’d rather have the store credit.

That leaves the Cutlass Black and the Star Runner. The Black is, by far, the most versatile ship in the game. It has enough SCU space for basic daily cargo runs, is small enough to land almost anywhere, and can pack a mean punch in combat. This is a ship which I feel I might be better off buying in-game and accepting that I don’t need to own it through the pledge store. The MSR is a harder decision, though. I’ve owned the MSR for years now. It used to be my go-to ship for literally everything. It’s good a generous cargo grid, and I love the look of Crusader ships, especially this one. It’s a piece of shit, though. Envisioned as a “smuggling ship”, a good portion of it is wasted on sub-deck crawlspaces. It’s only got one egress — the rear hatch — which is a pain in the ass. It’s also tasked as an “exploration” ship: the midship area is filled with servers, and there’s a dedicated scanning room off the cargo grid…all of it useless as there’s no exploration gameplay in the game. On top of all of that, the MSR is in severe need of a gold-standard pass (though I expect big things from the MSR when it does get it’s gold pass). All of this means that I’ll probably melt both the Black and the MSR.

One wildcard that I didn’t snag in the screenshot is the Hull B, the…phallic looking ship in the whole fleet image. This is a cargo ship which also has 512 SCU of cargo space, putting it on-par with the Galaxy. However, as with all of the Hull series ships, the cargo is stuck to the outside fins, exposed to Gawd, the Universe, and every wannabe pirate I might have the misfortune of zipping past. I might decide to melt this one as well if the Galaxy pans out, because the Galaxy should be harder to kill than an inside-out cargo ship.

Tally

Assuming I keep the Hermes, melting the other ships frees up a whole lot of store credit. I expect that since the Galaxy has already been offered for sale in the past, it’s release at IAE will come with a price bump, and while I still have credit lying around after the melting of the Ironclad, melting the rest of these ships will increase the pool of “old money” I have available, more than enough to cover whatever nonsense CIG throws behind the Galaxy.

I’m going to have to wait until IAE proper, however, since I don’t know if I might need any of the ships that are slated for the slag heap; I doubt it, since I haven’t used most of them in recent memory with the exception of the Hermes.

What’s tangentially funny is that I find myself shifting around my brand loyalty as well. Originally I was a fan of MISC because I have been a long-time owner of the Prospector, and have owed a few Freelancer/Starlancer variants in my time. Then I started to switch to Crusader and their fascination with sleek lines and asymmetrical cockpits. Now, a lot of my fleet is trending towards RSI. I like RSI’s dedication to a straight-forward interior which is easy to navigate, and they tend to keep walkways clear and well lit.